Alice KonitzLos Angeles, CA

Artist’s Statement

The idea of potential is a primary binding element in Alice Könitz artistic production. Her object’s behavior often lingers in close proximity to that of a placebo; but their self-sufficient posture never entirely allows them to be pinned down quite that easily. Könitz is known for her use of impermanent materials in constructions that appear structurally sound but are in reality just the opposite. These dichotomous objects employ the innate characteristics of non-structural craft materials, in conjunction with human scale and actual proportion, to induce an incongruous perception based on the viewer’s experiential familiarity with objects and materials. Könitz says: “Sometimes the materials stand in for other materials, but since the objects I’m making are completely invented, it’s hard to say what these materials would be.” If Könitz objects are something akin to a full-scale 1:1 proportional model of a hypothetical or imagined object, how then do we negotiate a miniature scale model of that? A model of a model -- a potential potential? John Espinosa

Könitz studied at Cal Arts(MFA), and at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf (Akademiebrief, Meisterschülerbrief). Her work has been shown her work at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the 2008 California Biennial, Joshua Tree/ Orange County Museum of Art, CA; Half Square Half Crazy, Centre Nationale D'Art Contemporain de la Villa Arson, Nice, France; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and the Tirana Biennial in Tirana, Albania. She had solo exhibitions at Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles and Berlin; LAXART and LACE, Los Angeles, CA; the University Art Museum, CSU Long Beach; Hudson Franklin, New York, NY; and Luis Campaña, Cologne, Germany. She recently founded the "Los Angeles Museum of Art," LAMOA, a small scale private institution that showcases contemporary art and events.